#OOTD Sew & Style Blog Tour Kickoff!

Posted by
Angela Lan
on May 17, 2016

Welcome to the #OOTD Sew & Style blog tour! I’m so excited to be kicking off the tour here on C&T’s blog.

#OOTD (Outfit of the Day) Sew & Style is a fashion design and sewing book for tween and teens teaching them the basics of sewing while teaching them to create garments at the same time. My goal with this book is to teach teens how to make store-bought–looking clothes in the easiest way possible, step by step. The book starts off with the foundations of sewing, including fabric types, types of stitches, and basic sewing techniques and then moves on into more garment-based techniques such as zippers and darts. From cutting fabric to installing zippers to sewing french seams, this skill-building book teaches the reader new techniques and helps her to practice these skills by making a new clothing item at the end of each chapter. After a making a couple of projects, teens can learn how to modify basic patterns to create totally different looks, such as turning a shorts pattern into a pair of pants.

My book is based on my own personal experience of being unable to find a tween/teen sewing book that taught me how to make clothes. When I first started making my own clothes, I was still a relative beginner and a young sewer. I was mostly teaching myself, by reading books and watching YouTube videos. However, while I wanted to dive into the world of self-made fashion, there was no "go-to" book or resource that could teach me the basics of sewing while teaching me to create clothes at the same time. There were the kid sewing books that taught me how to make pot holders and pillows, but I wanted to make, well, clothes. Something that I could wear on a daily basis and show off. Then there were the beginner garment-sewing books that were geared towards adults, so none of the included patterns were in my size and the wording was too complicated for my ten-year-old brain. A couple years after my experience, I realized that the huge market of sewing books still lacks a complete, from-start-to-finish, "design and sew your own clothes while learning how to sew" kind of book targeted towards teens.

It’s been a good two-and-a-half years since I first started this journey, and now that my book is finally published, I hope sewers of any age find it useful and enjoy reading it. Outside of sewing, I also hope to inspire teens to pursue their passion.

For the rest of the week, each day there will be a blogger sharing their thoughts on
#OOTD, so be sure to check out their blog on the corresponding days:

Also, C&T is giving away a copy of
#OOTD Sew & Style. For your chance to win, click here: a Rafflecopter giveaway. A US winner will receive a hard copy; an international winner will receive an ebook. Winner will be announced here on the blog in one week!

Congratulations Amy C, on winning this giveaway!

You'll also have a chance to enter to win a copy of the book at each blog tour stop, so the more blogs you visit, the more chances you have to win!